Since Graduation: A Summary

Well, Aunt Nancy, I am finally getting around to posting something about us!

Our last couple weeks in Hawaii were a whirlwind. We spent the first week of April packing and trying to sell a bunch of our stuff and going to Honors Banquets, Department Banquets, and what not. Saturday April 10 was graduation. It was awesome. Tyson graduated Summa Cum Laude, the top 1%, which is the highest academic honor you can reach, at least at BYU-Hawaii. Also of the several hundred students graduating, Tyson was one of two students that graduated with University Honors. Yay Tyson!

Colby flew in that night, and the next day we went to church and desperately cleaned and packed up to check out of our apartment by 1PM. It was one of the most stressful experiences of my lifetime. We would have never made it if SEVERAL of our most awesome friends and neighbors hadn't helped us finishing cleaning, packing sorting, making food, and watching out kids. Thank you Roo, Danelle, Josh, Paige, Doug, Cassie, Brett, Natalia, Brandon, Tungaa, and Zack, and anyone else that helped! You guys worked a miracle in our apartment and there is NO WAY we could have made it without you guys!

Our great H.T. Doug drove us to the airport and we spent the next week on the Big Island showing Colby around all the beaches, volcanoes, and other beautiful sites. We got rained out on our backpack trip but we still had a wonderful time. We also got to attend the Kona Temple.

We flew back to Oahu for three days and stayed with our oh-so-kind friends Brandon and Natalia who lived directly above us. We loved living so close to them. Natalia became one of my best friends in Hawaii and Brandon one of Tyson's closest friends. They were the kind of neighbors who you could just call up to do whatever with and they'd almost always be up for it. Without them I don't know how I would have ever made the time to learn to surf or go hiking as much as we did. Their little boy Kai is almost exactly a year older than Jeffrey and it was fun to watch the little whirlwind that he is ;-) While we were there Colby attended the PCC one day and Colby, Tyson, and Brandon finally did the trip they've been talking about for a year and climbed and rappelled down a series of several waterfalls (12 or 13), the tallest being 300 ft. and 500 ft. Natalia and I were thankful that they all made it down safely and in one day, the first group to do so.

We flew to Utah to make it just in time for another graduation ceremony. This time Tyson received Cum Laude and was honored for his Phi Kappa Phi membership. He received a double major, graduating in with one degree in Math and his other in Spanish. Tyson amazes me.

While in Utah we got to spend a little time with my family. My mom put in Amri's first little pigtails with Amri being seven and a half months. Isn't she cute? We sure think so. While we were in Hawaii her hair was super curly from all the humidity. Whenever we went out in the stroller it wasn't uncommon for people to be going by in the grocery store or whatever to suddenly stop in their tracks when they looked at Amri and stared at her. Then the comments that followed always went something like, "Oh my goodness, she is the cutest baby I've ever seen!!! Look at all that red hair! [Let me just insert here, her hair is very reddish. I personally would not say "red", but definitely a lot of red hints in her hair] She looks just like a doll!!" She really did, too. Now that we are on the mainland most of the curls are gone but it is fun doing up her hair now and seeing her get even cuter and bigger.

We drove/moved to California to stay with Tyson's parents for the summer on Monday, April 26. Donny was taking a couple of people down the Kern River for the week, and we did a couple of things with them, like hiking and exploring a cave and going down part of the rapids for a day, and going down another part of the river. That weekend Donny, Alyssa, Tyson, and Colby also went and explored some new rivers/creeks.

The following Thursday, May 6, after last minute car troubles (the vehicle that we were going to take and that was already packed, the fan flew off and made a huge hole in the radiator), we switched vehicles and drove down to Arizona for another rafting trip Donny had planned to do down the Salt River. Donny, Alyssa, Colby, Tyson and I went, since Don and Leslie kindly offered to watch our kids with us for the week. We put in on Saturday and took out the following Thursday. Two other people came, Esperanza and Steve. We all had a lot of fun. Before and after the river we also got to stay with our good friends Peter and Amber who currently live in Phoenix.

Because of the abnormally high snow pack certain parts of the country received this last winter, rivers that don't normally run for more than a week were still running, even though it was the middle of May. Tyson convinced the Hazard clan that was in Arizona that we needed to take "the chance of a lifetime" and run the Gila River. So, following the Salt and after going through the Gila Valley Temple Open House, we drove to New Mexico to do the Salt River. I got in a kayak, for the first time in three years (and for the second time in my life), and actually kayaked down 40 miles of the Gila River, class II+ to III-. My legs got a little banged up the couple of times I flipped and swam, but overall it was a beautiful, fun experience and I'm so glad we went. Tyson, Colby, and I did the upper part of the run, and Donny and Alyssa parked the car at our takeout and started doing 40 miles from that point, where we picked them up after finishing our fun run. Tyson and I also hit our 2 1/2 anniversary on the day we got back to California.

The beautiful Gila Valley Temple. Oh yeah, and Tyson's nice beard that he'd grown in the previous week.

This is me, 3 1/2 months pregnant and kayaking. Did I mention that I was pregnant through all this moving/traveling/camping/backpacking,/river rafting/kayaking business? Minor detail. I'm due 11/11 and we are so excited! Hooray for babies!

Since then things have calmed down quite a bit. Tyson and Troy still go down the Kern River on a weekly basis and we have been working on projects around here. I'm getting to know people in the ward and I now type a few hours a week for a fun sister in the ward who is blind and doesn't have control of her hands due to a rare genetic disease. Jeffrey loves being able to explore in the Hazard's fenced-in back yard and playing with their dog, Happy. He is learning new words daily and has started making little sentences and still loves to play with Amri. Amri has just reached several milestones, including scooting, pulling herself up on the furniture to stand, getting her first tooth (although we hardly noticed she was teething--she is such a happy baby), and finally learning to crawl. She turned 9 months yesterday, and to celebrate we took Jeffrey and Amri to Lake Isabella on the little motor boat the Hazards have, and Tyson took her tubing behind the boat. We have pictures and a little video, but Tyson took the camera with him to the ward father/son campout/Troy's Eagle Scout project for the weekend, and so that will have to be posted later. However, this is a picture I have of Jeffrey in front of the little boat on Memorial Day:

Notice Jeffrey's ridiculously long hair. I swear, he looks like a member of the Beetles' band with all his hair covering his ears. We've cut his hair several times and yet seems to need another one faster each time. Each day we seem to mean to get to the haircut that never happens. He's still pretty cute, though ;-)

We are saving our money for our big move to Colorado in the fall. I think I failed to mention that as well. After considering our grad school options, we decided to go to the University of Colorado in Boulder for Tyson to pursue a Master's in Spanish Literature. Along with attending school, he also received a teaching assistantship and will be teaching a 100 or 200 level Spanish class at the University. We are looking for housing in the area (so if anyone knows of any good housing there, please let us know) and are excited for our next big adventure--and I'm excited to actually be settled in one place for a while and finally pull out several wedding gifts I've been waiting to use since we couldn't take them to Hawaii!

The past two months have been super crazy, with lots of fun accompanied with lots of stress, but I'm happy to be where we are now and looking forward to where we're going to be. Now that life has calmed down it's been so great to be able to have more time to study the scriptures and Conference talks from the Prophets and Apostles, and spend more time together as a family. It feels good to be near Temples again, and I was able to go to the LA Temple a few weeks ago and may be able to go to the Fresno Temple next week. I'm so thankful we can all be doing so many things as a family now and enjoy this little respite.